Of 613 PSA detainees in August 2019, 430 released: MHA

0
16
Public Safety Act (PSA)

SRINAGAR — A total of 183 persons are still detained under Public Safety Act (PSA) while no one is under house arrest in Jammu and Kashmir, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

Giving details, Minister of State for Home, G Kishan Reddy said that since August 1, 2019, 613 persons “including separatists, over ground workers, stone pelters etc” were detained at various points of time.

“Out of these, based on regular review and ground situation, 430 persons have been released till date,” he said while responding to the questions by Congress leader from Assam, Ripun Bora and Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi in the House of Elders.

He said that detentions were part of various measures taken in the “interest of security and public order” in view of the constitutional changes effected by the Parliament with regards to the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.

“The Government of Jammu and Kashmir has further reported that no person is under house arrest in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said as per the reply.

In March last year, the government had informed Lok Sabha that a total of 451 people were under detention in J&K, including 396 under Public Safety Act.

The authorities took 7,357 persons in preventive custody since August 2019 when the special status of the erstwhile State was abrogated and it was divided into two Union Territories—J&K and Ladakh, the minister had said on March 11, 2020.

The minister had said the detentions were made under Section 107 of the CrPC, as also under the J&K Public Safety Act, 1978.

Statement of GoI on house arrests not factual: APHC

All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) on Wednesday said it expressed surprise over the remarks of the Government of India’s Union Minister for Home Affairs, G Kishan Reddy in the Parliament of India that no political leader is under house arrest in Jammu & Kashmir since it became the Union Territory.

APHC said that a police vehicle is permanently stationed outside the Mirwaiz’s residence since August 2019, who do not allow him to move out.

“If that is not house arrest than what is? If he is not under house arrest, then why is he not allowed to come out of his house? Mirwaiz will complete one-and-a-half years under detention on February 5,” APHC said in the statement.

APHC reiterated that its Chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Muhammad Umar Farooq is not only a political leader of international repute, but also Mirwaiz-e-Kashmir, the religious and spiritual leader of Kashmir. As the Mirwaiz, because of his house detention, “he is even disallowed from delivering the Friday sermon at the historic Jamia Masjid, as per centuries-old Islamic tradition of Kashmir, causing anguish and despair among people.”

APHC said that instead of such misleading statements, “authorities should immediately end the house detention of the Mirwaiz-e-Kashmir and also release unconditionally all those political prisoners, youth, civil society members, journalists and the respectable members of the society who were arrested on the eve of August 5, 2019 among which many were booked under black laws like PSA and lodged in J&K and other jails of India including Tihar Jail, Kotbhalwal Jail, Jodhpur Jail, Agra Jail, Amphala Jail and Haryana Jail.”

Follow Us

The Kashmir Pulse is now on Google News. Subscribe our Telegram channel and Follow our WhatsApp channel for timely news updates!

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here